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August 23, 2002
PENSACOLA -- Two teenage brothers charged with murdering their father are expected to testify that they were not there and blame the killing on an adult co-defendant, a lawyer said Thursday.
That is the story Alex and Derek King, now 13 and 14, told a grand jury, defense lawyer Michael Rollo said at a pretrial hearing.
Rollo represents convicted child molester Ricky Chavis, 40, who was indicted on charges of arson and first-degree murder in the Nov. 26 death of Terry King, 40, whose bludgeoned body was found in his burning home in nearby Cantonment.
The King boys face the same charges. All three go on trial next week, each facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of murder.
The brothers' grand jury testimony contradicts earlier statements they made to Escambia County sheriff's investigators the day after the slaying.
Derek said he killed his father with an aluminum baseball bat. Alex said the killing was his idea because the boys were worried about being spanked for running way from home.
Rollo told Circuit Judge Frank Bell that the teenagers now say they were outside the home when their father was killed.
The boys told the grand jury in April that they learned their father was dead when Chavis later told them he had killed Terry King during a struggle, which the brothers claimed they neither heard nor saw, Rollo said.
The lawyer was given the usually secret grand jury testimony to prepare a defense for Chavis. Bell let him discuss it to argue a motion to dismiss the charge against Chavis, which the judge denied.
Two separate juries are to be selected Monday, one for Chavis and the other for the King brothers. Chavis will be tried first, then the boys. The first verdict will be sealed until the second trial is completed.
Assistant State Attorney David Rimmer said the boys will testify against Chavis, whom he then plans to call as a prosecution witness against the brothers in the second trial.
Rollo argued that the charge against his client, Chavis, should be dismissed because it is inconsistent for the state to contend in one trial that he was "an actual bat-wielding perpetrator" and in another allege that the teenagers did it.
"This has bothered me for quite some time," Rimmer said. "I intend to basically tell the jury it's up to them whether or not they want to believe what Alex and Derek say."
He said he planned to think about the issue more during the weekend, but suggested jurors might not believe the teens' testimony, but still find Chavis guilty based on other evidence that he encouraged the two to kill.
In rejecting Rollo's motion to dismiss the charge against Chavis, Bell told him he could impeach the King brothers' testimony with their prior confessions.